Cyberchiefs

Mathieu ONeil

Description

People are inventing new ways of working together on the internet. Decentralised production thrives on blogs, wikis and free software projects. Cyberchiefs focuses on the regulations of these working relationships. It examines the transformation of leadership and expertise in online networks, and the emergence of innovative forms of participatory politics.



What are the costs and benefits of alternatives to hierarchical organisation? Using case studies of online projects or 'tribes' such as the radical Primitivism archive, Daily Kos, the Debian free software project and Wikipedia, this book shows that leaders must support maximum autonomy for participants, and looks at the tensions generated by this distribution of authority.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I

1. The Autonomy Imperative

2. The Distribution of Charisma

3. The Tyranny of Structure

4. The Grammar of Justice

PART II

5. The Last Online Tribe: primitivism.com

6. The Primary War: dailykos.com

7. The Imperfect Committee: debian.org

8. The Great Sock Hunt: wikipedia.org

9. Online Tribal Bureaucracy

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Information Technology
• Computers
• Industries
• Informatique
• Economics
• Business

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849644037
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cyberchiefs

Cyberchiefs Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes

MATHIEU O’NEIL

PLUTO PRESS www.plutobooks.com

First published 2009 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

www.plutobooks.com

Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

Copyright © Mathieu O’Neil 2009

The right of Mathieu O’Neil to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN ISBN

978 0 7453 2797 6 978 0 7453 2796 9

Hardback Paperback

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. The paper may contain up to 70 per cent postconsumer waste.

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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Sidmouth, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

For GHM

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART I

1.The Autonomy Imperative  Anarchism and the Global Network of Struggles  Selfrealisation in the Digital Commons  Theories of Online Autonomy  The Internet Ideology and Informational Capitalism  Epistemic Tribal Projects

2.The Distribution of Charisma  Sticking It to the Virtual Man  Hacking Weber  Chiefs Without Authority  Distributed Production  Toadings in the Early Social Net  The Reputation Economy

3.The Tyranny of Structure  Power Laws  The Impact of Search  The Persistence of Archaic Force  Field Logic: Bourdieu  Gendering the Online Abject

4.The Grammar of Justice  Criticality and Justification  Legal Autonomy and Sovereign Authority  Norm Enforcement: Netiquette and Wizocracy  Tracking Authority in Four Online Tribes

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1

9 10 14 17 20 24

29 29 34 40 43 46 48

54 54 57 60 62 65

71 71 74 80 88

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PART II

5.The Last Online Tribe: primitivism.com Project:Web 0.0 Authority:The One Inside Conict:The Bookchin Brouhaha  Radical Dissent and the Net

6.The Primary War: dailykos.com Project:The Democratic Noise Machine Authority:Drinking From a Fire Hose Conict:The Alegre Affair

7.The Imperfect Committee: debian.org Project:The Universal Operating System Authority:A Bazaar of Cathedrals Conict:The SL Saga

8.The Great Sock Hunt: wikipedia.org Project:Expert Texpert Choking Smokers Authority:The Cabal Conict:The Durova DustUp

9.Online Tribal Bureaucracy  Organisation Without Domination  Costs and Benefits  The Role of Conflict  The Political Economy of Online Tribalism

Notes Index

93 93 96 98 103

105 106 109 117

129 130 133 139

147 148 153 160

169 170 176 180 184

191 233

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Elements of Chapters 1 and 5 appear in a different form in Mathieu O’Neil, ‘Radical Tribes at Warre: Primitivists on the Net’, in Tyrone L. Adams and Stephen A. Smith (eds),Electronic Tribes: The Virtual Worlds of Geeks, Gamers, Shamans and Scammers, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008. Some ideas developed in this book were first presented at the following events: Blogtalk Downunder (University of Technology Sydney, 2005); Workshop on Internet Mediated Sociality (Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, 2006); Social and Political Theory seminar (Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2007); Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute seminar (Australian National University, 2007). Thanks to the participants for their feedback. I owe the term ‘index authority’ to Rob Ackland of the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks. Thanks are also due to the following for their input: Vidisha Carmody, Lincoln Dahlberg, Adrian Hayes, Seth Keen, Ted Mitew, Tim Phillips, James Rice, Jennifer Rutherford, Rob Schaap, Russell Smith, Jodie Vaile, Judy Wajcman, Wanling Wee, Michael Wood. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism of my proposal. Special thanks to Kaspar Møller Hansen and Icon Tada. Eternal gratitude to Charmian and Mike. All my love to Hari, Mira, and Gita. Big Up to Claire, MarcAntoine, Sumitra, Ramanand, Vasanth, Nicolas, Alex, Frank, Marco, Christel, Silvain, Philippe, Yohannes ‘BC’, Serge, Lucy, Alvin, Yvonne, Vincent, Gilles.

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